Speeling erorrs

In the late afternoon I went to St. Peters, because I had been told it was less of a zoo at that time. Indeed, it was less of a zoo. How easy and formulaic it would be for me to write about the glories of the baroque and the follies of the touring crowds at the tomb of the prince of the Apostles, so instead, I think I should devote some time to the original purpose for this blog.

Inscriptions—they are all over the place. I have noticed that very many of them have “HEIC” which might prove confusing to some. EI is a Republican convention for marking the long vowel I. Other means employed in ancient inscriptions are doubling the vowel, and writing it in slightly taller capitals. It wasn’t revived by the humanists as a mere fad, however, but as an aid to reading; whereas hic (with a short I) means “this man”, heic, or hic (with a long I) means “here.’ If you didn’t before, now you know.

Not everything you see on an inscription is always spelled correctly. Above St. Helena’s statue ‘neath St. Peter’s dome is an inscription relating that the holy cross was discovered “ab Helena imperatrixe”, by the Empress Helena. I have no idea why that x is there, as the common orthography is imperatrice. Pope Urban VIII, who erected the statue and chapel, was no mean Latin scholar either. What is going on? An aesthetic consideration? Did the secretary dictating the Pope’s text to the stonemason have a lisp?

Some inscriptions are less of a mystery. I saw the following graffito today: “F**K SCOOL.” (sic) I have, of course, edited the four letter expletive. I was arrested by the irony of the inscription for a few moments, contemplating that if this poor individual had stayed in school he might be able to spell (though that is no guarantee under the present dispensation), and, very likely, would find no need to vandalise ancient monuments.

Yes, I know that a graffito is not an inscription, but I do believe that it is the same instinct alive in present day Romans to scrawl their names and opinions all over the city, as that which led their ancestors to do the same in stone. Unfortunately, the Romans of today are not gifted with an education and aesthetic sensibility equal to their forefathers’.